A great day at Kgatla village

It was so rewarding to see the excitement in the village when they received our donations -- especially when the village orphans received their uniforms.....

The trip took us a little over 3 hours due not only to distance, but  the bad dirt road that were only rocks in some parts, and also a slight delay while one of the drivers from the Premier's Department was stopped by police who discovered that she had an outstanding traffic fine which had to be paid before we could go any further! 

We first had to follow the signs to go to the village of 'My Darling' ....

which consisted of a large water tank and a small number of huts.

We turned right at My Darling and eventually arrived at Kgatla.  The whole village was at the school to greet us.  At first we were amazed at the number of children in uniforms and wondered why the request was for uniforms.  But, once you were up close to the kids, it was clear that the uniforms they had were thread bare and torn.

We were asked to move into a large room at the school and this was all set out with a table at the front covered in lace tablecloths with flowers.  This was for my team - the official guests.  There was a formal program of the event.  The Chief greeted us to the village and we introduced ourselves -- all through an interpreter.  

Team members (left to right) Ine, Sujata, Susan, Keiko, Camilla, Carolyn

Once the formalities were done we formed a line and carried the bags of shopping into the room.

Village Chief in the middle talking with personnel from the Department of Education

The Principal of the school then brought forward a number of children and asked if we could search out the right size uniforms for them.  They were the orphans in the village and they wanted these children to receive uniforms first:

Orphans before receiving uniforms

Orphans in their new uniforms (two of them eating marshmallows that had been handed to them before the photo)

When the orphans arrived back into the room all dressed up in their uniforms there were screams from the crowd who spontaneously applauded and yelled with delight.  The Principal of the school jumped up and did a dance of joy across the front of the crowd.

Crowd applauding with Stella, the representative from the Premier's Department in the red shirt -- the MC for the event

I had a wonderful encounter with an elder of the village.  After several minutes of her talking in Sepedi to me, and me replying in English, I worked out that she wanted me to take her photo!  There was much delight when I was able to show her the photo on the screen of my camera:

We left knowing that the whole village truly appreciated our donations and we were touched by the warmth of their greetings.  

Thanks again to the people who helped us make this happen for the people of Kgatla.

The shopping marathon

 Last Thursday we went shopping for school uniforms to take to the village of Kgatla -- what a marathon effort that became as we went to 5 stores and spent close to 5 hours purchasing all the items!

Why were we shopping for school uniforms?
As part of our Corporate Service Corps assignment, the team members wanted to donate some small items that we each brought with us to South Africa to an organization (school or orphanage). We spoke to the local officials at the Education Department here in Polokwane to try and identify a worthy school. They identified a project called 'War on Poverty' that we could contribute to.

The Education Department was so excited that we wanted to donate to their project that they contacted the Premier's Department. Following this, the Premier's Department identified a village called Kgatla that should receive our contributions -- considered to be the 'poorest of the poor'. 

The village is about 150 kms from Polokwane, the capital of Limpopo.  It has 130 households, 1 primary school (161 children), 1 high school (148 children) and 1 day care centre (61 children) - - no running water, no electricity and until very recently, no sanitation. 

When the Premier's Department asked the village Chief what they would need, they requested dictionaries and school uniforms for the children of the village.  Once we received information from the Education Department about the huge volume of uniforms needed, the team set out to see what funds we could raise through our friends and family -- and I am proud to say that my friends and family were very generous in this effort.  I appreciate your generosity.

Shirts and Skirts purchased at 'Stock Price' Store

We raised enough funds to purchase 67 skirts, 127 pairs of trousers, 156 shirts, 175 pair of shoes, 6 pair of socks, and 44 dictionaries. Other donations included:  clothing (baby, children, adult), food, baby formula, toys, candy, school books, soap, tooth paste, toothbrushes, sports equipments and arts and craft materials. 

Girls school shoes

Exhausted by a day of shopping, we were ready for our trip to Kgatla!

Field trips, including Nirvana!

We have had some wonderful visits to schools in the Sekhukhune District to view activities in the classrooms of the Foundation Phase (that's Kindergarten to grade 3).  

Each day the students are provided a meal that is paid for by the government and cooked by the parents.  As far as I can tell, this is based on some of their starches -- pap (maize meal that's made into a porridge) and samp (dried corn kernels).

We arrived at one school, Mashabela Primary School, right in the middle of the lunch.  The children serve each other the food and are very orderly in the process.

Eating Samp at Mashabela Primary School

At another school, Makgatsike (ma-hat-ze-ke) Primary School, we witnessed a cleaning bee underway.  The students all had tasks to complete from sweeping the classrooms to wiping down the computer screens in the computer lab.  They were also sweeping the dirt playground with branches from trees and rakes to ensure that everything was neat and tidy... although the sweeping created a heap of dust!


There was much excitement as our cameras came out to record the activity, so not a lot of sweeping happened for a while!

Our children have so much to learn from the children of Limpopo. They have so little but are so happy and grateful for anything they receive. 

We have also been to Nirvana -- found it at last!  Well, found Nirvana Primary School where we attended a one day training program for teachers who will be receiving the IBM Reading Companion software for their classes.  Of the 20 teachers in the training, around 15 of them had never touched a computer before, so this training was a real eye opener for them.  It was great to help them on their learning journey.

In the middle of the choir

Last Sunday, on September 18, a group of us decided to go to the church service at the local Catholic Church in Polokwane.  We arrived about 20 minutes before the service began and found the very large church fairly empty.  We made our way to the third front seat so we could be close to the action.

Luca, Susan, Ine, Daniel and me at the front of the Catholic Church in Polokwane

Within the next 15 minutes the very large church was packed with parishioners and the chairs in front of us were getting more and more packed as people looked bewildered and squashed into the chairs around us.

Well, it turns out that we were very close to the action.  As the service began, we realised that the seats we had selected were, in fact, in the middle of the choir! 

As the African drums began to be pounded the worshipers broke into the most wonderful hymns in their local language.  The roof lifted, the congregation smiled and moved with the beat of the drums and voices.  We did our best to join in with the music that was filling the church.  

The level of energy was amazing and we will all remember the time we were part of an African choir :-)

My first zebra ever

What a thrill it was to go on my first game drive and witness a herd of zebra grazing in the long grasses of the Limpopo savannah.

Just 10 minutes out of Polokwane, where we are staying, there is one of the largest municipal-owned game reserve in South Africa.  It is home to around 21 species of animals and one of the remaining examples of the local vegetation -- called false grassland.

Last Saturday the team of 14 of us had a 2 hour drive in an open vehicle. 

We began at 4pm and wound our way through the many trails for game viewing.  


The reserve is also a place that the locals come to exercise and we passed a guy on his trail bike going on his afternoon ride. 

We saw the transformation of the landscape as the sun set in the distance and the animals grazed for their dinner. 

After the game drive we all went to a picnic site in the bush and sat down to a feast of South African food in the wilderness.  

After dinner we sat around a camp fire and recalled all the wonderful sights and sounds of the day. 

The park is also home to the white rhino.  We weren't fortunate enough to see them this trip, but my colleagues who returned on horse back a week later were lucky enough to see them very close by!    






 http://www.sa-venues.com/game-reserves/np_polokwane-game-reserve.htm

A week into the project

It's been a whirlwind of activity since arriving in South Africa a little over a week ago.  The international team of fourteen people on the Corporate Services Corp is terrific.  We have split into 4 teams and have been working with our clients over the last week to fully understand their needs and agree on what we will be delivering to them by early October.

My team of three is working with the Limpopo Department of Education in one of their five districts, Sekhukhune (Sek-ku-ku-ne).  In 2010 Sekhukhune had ~219K Primary school students, and ~114K secondary students.

The district is dominated by rural schools and many do not have running water.  The lucky schools have electricity and access to computers.  The district was declared a focus district by the Provincial Government as their academic results for school education were not at the standard that was needed.


We are helping the District develop a framework for teacher Professional Development for the Foundation Phase students (Kindergarten to Year 3).  We are also developing a monitoring tool for the IBM KidSmart Program pilot in 25 schools before it is rolled out to 200 schools in the District.  KidSmart is a colourful, fully contained computer for 5-6 year old students with interactive games to support children's development and learning.

Kindergarten teachers at Kidsmart training

 There have been so many highlights and observations that I cannot do all of them justice, so will briefly touch on a few: 

• The people are friendly and very passionate about their wonderful country.  They remember the struggles of the past and at the same time have their eyes on the future that a united South Africa can achieve.
• The full team of 14 were hosted to a Gala Dinner on the first evening in Limpopo where the officials from the Department of Education welcomed us with open arms. 
• We visited small rural schools where the smiling faces of the children beamed at our cameras
• We participated in a training program for the teachers at the 25 schools who will be receiving KidSmart computers.  This was the first experience of computers for all of them and it was tremendous to see their enthusiasm to learn.... and, of course,
• South Africa won two games in the world cup - a constant source of discussion here at the moment with everyone wearing Springbok jerseys to support their team (and lots of animated discussions when it's discovered that one of my team member, Daniel, is from  Brazil)
• I have been impressed by the good road infrastructure in and between the cities.  Things change quickly once you get off the main roads in the rural areas. 
• I feel very much at home with the red dirt, bottle brush, gum trees, bouganvillia and jacarandas everywhere.... it's clear that our continents had a common beginning geologically.  

Hill behind Tiitsana Primary School with the toilet block in the foreground

Tiitsana Primary School building

My greatest challenge at present is to become better at understanding and remembering all the wonderful names of the South Africans we meet.

Only 4 days to go

There's only four days before I head to Limpopo, South Africa, to be part of IBM's Corporate Services Corp team.. Limpopo is the northern most province of South Africa and an agricultural centre for the country. 

There's a team of 14 of us from all over the world who will be working on 4 different agreed projects.  My team's project is to work with the Limpopo Department of Education to review their Professional Development Program for teachers who are about to receive one of the IBM KidSmart modules in their classroom.    My team members include Susan from the US and Daniel from Brazil and we are really looking forward to working together to help the teachers and children in Limpopo.